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MacPhail's take

Earlier today, I wrote about the latest talk of possible realignment of divisions in Major League baseball. All the talk is in the preliminary stages.

O's president Andy MacPhail serves on MLB's special committee for on-field matters.

At FanFest in January, in response to a fan question about a salary cap in baseball, MacPhail discussed the possibility of division realignment.

Here are his comments from that day:

"I was fortunate enough for the commissioner of baseball to put me on his on-field committee. Mark Shapiro and I with the Indians didn't lose the opportunity to say, maybe some division realignment would not be a bad idea.

"And I'm serious. I broached this at the meeting and I'm going to work on it. I would encourage any of you if you have ideas, to let us know.

"I don't know why divisions have to be static. Why they have to be etched in stone. We have interleague play. I don't know why you couldn't occasionally keep an upbalanced schedule, but move divisions. Stay within your time zone.

"Let's say they rotated us out of the AL East for a year and said we were in the National League East and pick a team, Philly, Washington, whatever, were moved to the AL East, maybe two or three teams were moved.

"Nobody is going to like that, but from a monetary standpoint if you ended interleague play and all the sudden they got the Yankees and Red Sox 18 times at home, there's sort of an economic incentive for them to bite the bullet every once in a while. I think it's an idea worth developing.

"The way the sport is currently composed it's difficult on the three teams (in our division) not blessed with their economic wherewithal.

"We went to Yankee Stadium last year and they are charging $2,400 for a box seat. And they only sell a third of them, but they are still making a ton of money, more than others, just selling one of three. I find that repugnant to be honest with you.

"I think the commissioner is sympathetic to that and as long as he keeps me on the committee we'll try to push that agenda and see what happens. But why not rotate them in and out a little bit."

Coming tomorrow - More with young O's pitching prospect Cameron Coffey, the 22nd-round pick in last June's draft. He explains changes he has made in his pitching mechanics and why he made them.